Growing up with very little in a poor family, these 5 stars have overcome their financial difficulties and have gone on to have great success, which must feel amazing! For some, their poor childhoods made them realize that money doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness, while others were made hungry for success by their lack of cash and worked hard to make it happen and to improve conditions for their family. Some suffered in other ways, such as socially, because other children were told to stayed away from those called poor.
Hilary Swank
Hilary had no friends because parents told their kids not to play with her simply because she was poor:”I grew up feeling like an outsider because we had no money, so I understood ‘classism’ at a young age. A lot of parents didn’t want their kids playing with me, even though the kids didn’t care. Because I experienced that, my friends became characters in books or movies. That’s what I could relate to. The first three movies I remember watching – ‘The Elephant Man’, ‘The Miracle Worker’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – were all about outsiders facing adversity.”
Nicki Minaj
Nicki dreamed of having a bright bedroom of her own as she was forced to share with her brother: “I didn’t have my own room, I shared with my brother, so I would have this daydream and imagine that one day I could have my own room and it would all be pink, like Cinderella’s. So I guess pink takes me back to that time and it just feels euphoric when I wear it. I love it.”
Missy Elliot
Missy Elliot grew up with very little in Virginia which made her hungry for success: “I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep.” Her mother Patricia Elliot recalls “We didn’t have running water… We were going in a pot that sat by her bed, because we didn’t have a bathroom.”
Mila Kunis
Mila grew up with no money but was happy as a child and doesn’t work for the financial reasons: “For me, it was never about the money because my parents had always instilled into me that money is the root of all evil. I believe that 100 per cent. I was a happy nine year old and my family was p**s poor, I’m telling you.”
Kate Winslet
Kate grew up in a poor family that struggled to get by: “People think I’m lying… My dad was very much a struggling actor and spent more of his life as a postman, as a member of a Tarmac firm, as a van driver. He’d sell Christmas trees. Anything. That was my dad. We had these dreadful second-hand cars that would always die a death, or we’d go on holiday to Cornwall, come back and it would have been nicked (stolen). It’s like a Joe Orton farce, my family. Honestly, it was hand-me-down shoes and 10p pocket money on a Saturday that didn’t go up until I was 11.”
